Shorten targets trusts as costings shown

Bill Shorten will finally have an answer to the question that has plagued him over the past month: How much will Labor's policies cost?

The opposition leader is campaigning in Cairns, in far north Queensland, on Friday but his shadow treasurer Chris Bowen and finance spokesman Jim Chalmers will be in Canberra unveiling the party's costings.

Labor is projecting its budget would be back in the black in 2019/20, the same as the coalition, and have a surplus of one per cent of GDP by 2022/23.

The money will go towards bigger surpluses as well as a raft of election promises including better funding for hospitals and schools, the Medicare cancer plan, cheaper child care, a pensioner dental plan, roads and rail projects and tax cuts for 10 million workers.

However, it's uncertain if the costings will offer any clarity around the cost to business or the economy of Labor's plans for tackling climate change.

The government has persistently attacked Labor on this point, citing a range of estimates in the tens of billions.

But Mr Shorten says it should have a minimal impact on economic growth and should be viewed as an investment in the future rather than a cost.

Mr Shorten will start the day in Cairns, targeting Liberal Warren Entsch's seat of Leichhardt, which he holds by 3.9 per cent.

It's the Labor leader's second visit to the regional city this election.

He will announce Labor would declare far north Queensland a "renewable energy zone" if it wins on May 18, the Cairns Post reported.

The zones are intended to send a signal to investors about potential sites for new renewable energy projects and lead to better coordination of developing generation, storage and transmission.

Labor hopes they will also bring more jobs to the regions.

The party has already said it would establish the zones in areas of Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia.

Days before the election was called, Genex Power announced it had the final environmental approvals needed to go ahead with its pumped hydro project in the old Kidston gold mine, which it said would contribute to the development of a renewable energy zone in far north Queensland.

The project is the flagship of Genex's renewable hub, providing 2000MWh of storage capacity to complement the 320MW worth of solar generation the company already has on the site, about 300km inland and midway between Cairns and Townsville.